Inside a warehouse in Dock Borough that housed an altar.
As the Great Smog spread, Xio seemed to see resentful spirits take the form of translucent figures. They surged toward a single place, one after another, gathering into something terrifying and unknown.
From what Xio knew of mysticism, she immediately understood that these dead souls had likely worshipped the True Creator in secret, or had at least recited His name. Now the Aurora Order was sacrificing their lingering spirits and resentment in exchange for the True Creator's descent!
Fortunately, their ritual is still missing something. Otherwise, they would have succeeded already!
With that thought, Xio looked at the concealed altar in the warehouse and once again confirmed its importance.
The numbness, despair, pain, resentment, and other suppressed emotions that had accumulated over years in Factory Borough, Dock Borough, and East Borough were essential to the Aurora Order's ritual. Princess Vera's earlier preparations had drawn those extreme emotions here, delaying the evil god's descent.
But the Aurora Order won't let such a rare opportunity pass... No sooner had the thought crossed Xio's mind than the shadow beneath her feet came alive. It seized her ankles, rose like water, and bound her tightly.
Xio's heart lurched. She knew this ability. Baron Konwa had used it when they fought, and Abner had later explained that it was Shadow Control, an ability of the Black Knight, Sequence 4 of the Secrets Suppliant Pathway.
The Aurora Order's Demigod is here! As the thought flashed through her mind, Xio was about to use the Demigod-level Fangs of the Stars, which Her Highness had lent her, to cut through the shadows. Then she heard an imposing woman's voice beside her:
"Deprivation!"
At once, the living shadows seemed to have their souls torn away. They fell back to